EPIC Rated: PG

Barbara Says:

My friend and I played children and ran off to see the latest animation film. Guess what? We found a lot of other adults there too. The place had a great many kids for a Friday night also. So I was wondering if there would be the usual talking out loud or crying.  Not a sound. This movie is bright with color and flying creatures in 3-D.  For that alone it is worth your time but it is funny and sweet and thoughtful too.  The story is not new. It is about believing in another world going on around us in our gardens and our desire to see it.  It is about father and daughter being disconnected because of his desire to see that world and her not believing in it at all. Until,she is suddenly part of that world and the savior of it. We enjoyed this film for the  beautiful colors but the artistry of it all was beyond well crafted.  At the end of the credits it tells you that it took 1,000,000 hours to make and 2,000 people to craft it. In one word - Amazing. It also lets us know that if we do not learn to work together, we will all die together. That is my wish for the whole world-Learn to work together.  I give this a 9 out of 10 because it touched me (and a lot of children too because they were so quite).

Cat Says:

We went to go see Epic today. It was me, my 12 year old son and my friend with her 6 year old son. I had heard that the graphics were great and those who had seen it loved it but I wasn't all that excited to go see it. But, it's summer. The kids are bored and it's hot outside. So an air conditioned movie theater sounded like a great idea and it was time I could spend with my friend and her son. So I figured that even if the movie wasn't good, the time spent would be. 

Turned out the movie was good and the graphics are great! I still can't get over the scene where the Queen is stepping from lily pad to the small water plant leaves, walking across a pond, and it really looks like the leaves are slightly submerged under the water! And we were not watching the 3-D version of this movie! There are many other examples of how they got the forest, lighting, camera angles and all so perfectly but for me this was also a detractor because the characters were not rendered in the same way. I've seen better character graphics in low priced video games. So it was an odd combination for me...having the forest look so realistic and the characters so unrealistic. 

The story is like Avatar meets Honey I Shrunk the Kids meets Fern Gully. And it works. Tiny forest people are at a point in their civilization when the Queen must find an heir in the buds that grow in the pond or the forest will die. There are caretakers in the form of a slug and a snail to watch over the bud as well as a whole army of Leafmen to guard the Queen and the bud. There is also a whole army of bad guys who want to kill the Queen and steal the bud since legend says that if the bud blooms in darkness it will become ruler of the dark side and will destroy the forest forever. This event is complicated when a teen-aged human girl is sent to go live with her father, a scientist obsessed with proving the forest people exist, after her mother dies. The dad is distracted, the girl decides to leave and live on her own when she is derailed with her dog running off into the forest. Circumstances lead her to have to help the Queen, be shrunk down to size, meet and fall in love with the teen-aged ward of the Captain of the Leafmen and help save the day before she can return to her real size and return to her dad.

The girl, played by Amanda Seyfried, is not the wimpy character that many of these movies want the girl to be. She is a bit head strong and yet a very capable person. The boy, played by Josh Hutcherson, is written a bit too much to form. Head strong, yes, but too much of a screw up who sort of gets it together by the end. Old story, old characterization. Would have been nice to have seen a new spin on this character. The head of the Leafmen, played by Colin Farrell, was the perfect mix of strong, determined and rational with a side of true affection for his ward. The evil leader was played to evil perfection by Christoph Waltz. Always cracks me up when movies ignore the reality of killing off a main food source by the bad guy as being bad for the bad guy too! The Queen is played by Beyonce and it's a one note performance. Not her fault but the fault of the writers to keep this character so one dimensional. The most fun characters are the slug and snail, played by Aziz Ansari and Chris O'Dowd and the local soothsayer played by Steven Tyler. I think his character is my favorite. Tons of fun to watch.

The story is the usual save the world story. I really just require all to end well for the "good" side and all to end very badly for the "bad" side and this movie meets that criteria very well. I give it a 7.5 out of 10. I would recommend seeing it on the big screen for the graphics. So if you and the kids are having the summer we are having take them to go see Epic. Both adults had a good time, the 6 year old loved it and the 12 year old thought it was pretty good. Very worth the time in the air conditioning!

Now You See Me Rated: PG-13

Cat Says:

I'll begin by saying I'm really really...did I mention really?...not a fan of magic or magicians. I know, I know, that's almost un-American. However when I started catching the trailers for this film. And it is a really really fun ride. It takes four magicians and a mysterious benefactor who promises them great things IF they can pull off three shows. Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher and Dave Franco play the four magicians who team up to rob the rich and give to the poor. Morgan Freeman plays an ex-magician who now exposes magician secrets and is determined to expose these four to the whole world. Michael Caine as the multi-millionaire who funds them and finds himself wrapped up in what is really happening. Mark Ruffalo plays the FBI agent chasing them, or chasing his own tail, Melanie Laurent as the French Interpol Agent who keeps trying to get him to see past the trick to what is really going on. But we don't find out what is really happening until the very end with a very fun twist. 

Eisenberg plays arrogant very well, as he proved in The Social Network, Harrelson plays flirty-smarmy very well and is, again, one of my favorite actors. Fisher is the one who sort of blends into the background. This isn't very well written for her character and I wish they would have made her part less fluffy. Franco, last seen in Warm Bodies, was fun and playful and all New York. So, while they are really breaking the law and walking the fine line between escaping and spending 20 years in prison, you are rooting for their  "magic" tricks to fool them all. Most of the time you do feel like you are two steps behind them and just when you think you are one step ahead they prove you wrong. Lots of fun for those of us who love movie puzzles.

There is very little here that would keep you from taking the younger kids but I don't think they would really be all that interested until they are teens and like figuring out the puzzle of this film. There is the very real fact that this is a heist film so a bit morally bankrupt in that view and something to consider for the kids. There is one scene where sex is inferred, one scene where there is drinking and, of course, the grand theft. But tons of fun in every scene so I give it a 9 out of 10. Not perfection but close.

Barbara Says:

Before we go any further, just let me say this one gets a 9-3/4 from me. The deduct is because I am left to wonder what became of the Four Horsemen? But for sheer entertainment this cannot be beat. I was completely captivated.  The fifth Horsemen will surprise you and please you too.  All the actors did a great piece of work here and should be proud of it. I am sure the film will get no mention at the Oscars but that`s OK because the public is far more important than those people who vote those awards. We are the ones who pay out our hard earned dollars to go watch these movies. We make or break a film. So our opinion is the one that counts.   

Mark Ruffalo is as always outstanding and Jesse Eisenberg is going to be one of our greats.  As for Morgan Freeman? What can anyone say about him that has not already been said repeatedly.  Following up with his own style is Harrelson. As the best of the best at Magic they cannot be beat until they find that they have been and by someone they never saw coming.  But neither did we. So go enjoy a little magic of your own.

Tory Says:

What I thought was going to be a fun little movie with some “ok” special effects actually turned out to be a pretty great little film.

I really liked not only the actors in it but the way they interacted with each other. I was thrilled that there was an actual plot. None of the previews I saw actually showed that it was any more than these magicians robbing a bank. There is much more to the story than that! I’m not sure how much to say because I don’t want to give anything away.

My hubby thought that they might have relied a bit too much on the effects being CGI than actually doing the magic themselves but I didn’t have a problem with that. I appreciated the twist at the end and I didn’t pick up on it until almost the moment of reveal. For me, that’s always a plus!

My absolute favorite parts where when it was revealed to the audience how they did each trick. It made me feel like I was watching a “behind the scenes” moment and I love those type of things! I would see it or at least rent it if you have the chance. Nothing bad or too violent for children. I think kids 12 and up would probably like it. I would give it a 7.5 out of 10. A good, fun little film but nothing to rush out and see in the theaters.